A government panel on deregulation is about to issue its final 12-point report, after battling for the past 10 months with bureaucrats who want to maintain the status quo.

Details gleaned by The Asahi Shimbun make for somber reading, with the report concluding that input from bureaucrats amounted to a ``zero response'' in the 12 areas highlighted for change last February.

The focus now will be on how Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has trumpeted bold regulatory reform as the centerpiece of his policies, will respond to ongoing resistance from the entrenched bureaucracy.

The government's Council for Regulatory Reform is headed by Yoshihiko Miyauchi, chairman of Orix Corp. and a Koizumi appointee. The report will be submitted to Koizumi on Dec. 16.

The 12 areas outlined for deregulation in February include sales of pharmaceutical products at convenience stores and allowing private companies to operate hospitals and schools.

Yet, bureaucrats in the various ministries offered nothing substantial in the way of change, barely going beyond the points listed by the council nearly a year ago.

Some progress was made, however, in setting up designated special zones for structural reform so that private companies can run hospitals.

In its report, the council recommends allowing general retail stores to sell pharmaceutical products. It says this should be allowed to go ahead this fiscal year. It noted there is strong public demand to buy pharmaceutical products at convenience stores.

But the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare insists pharmacists must be on hand to offer medical advice when drugs are sold. The council seeks to end that stipulation.

``In actual fact, little direct guidance on how to take medicines occurs in drugstores,'' the report said.

Under the special zone structure, a number of companies and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have offered to operate schools.

Accordingly, in its report, the council calls for the speedy introduction of special zones whereby public schools are entrusted to companies or NPOs under a ``public facility private operation model.''

As for companies managing hospitals under the special zone approach, the council is calling for a freeing up of the sector on a nationwide basis in fiscal 2004.

``Competition among medical facilities and an expansion of patient choice will be enhanced,'' it says.(IHT/Asahi: December 8,2003) (12/08)